ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul women's lacrosse opened the 2024 GLIAC league schedule with an 18-15 victory over Davenport University on Friday night at the Concordia Dome at Sea Foam Stadium.

The win was a strong return home after a 6-game, 3-state road swing that sent the team through three time zones, improving the Golden Bears to 6-6 overall including a 1-0 start to GLIAC play. Davenport falls to 5-3 overall and opens league play 0-1.

Concordia's two starting middles had big nights as Susie Monson had six points on four goals and two assists, adding six draw controls, two caused turnovers, and two ground balls. Hailey Hartlage was just as busy, netting a hat trick with an assist for four points, while securing three draw controls, two caused turnovers, and a ground ball.

Additionally, Hartlage seemed to be in the mix on numerous plays in the middle of the field where she didn't earn a notch in the stat sheet, but contributed to the team gaining or retaining possession.

Seven different players scored two or more goals, including Taylor Preece with a hat trick off the bench while Cayla Jungwirth had four points with a pair of goals and a pair of assists.

Defensively, Claire Flahaven once again came up big with three caused turnovers and a team-high five ground balls while Paige Nicklaus had a pair of caused turnovers and four ground balls.

CSP had a 16-6 advantage in caused turnovers and 22-19 on ground balls

In a game that featured twists and turns and 33 total goals, there were only three lead changes and three ties (4-4, 8-8, 11-11). CSP started the night with the first three goals before an 8-1 run by the Panthers to claim an 8-4 lead early in the second quarter.

Concordia responded by snapping the 6-0 run during the stretch of DU scoring eight of nine goals by scoring four in a row to knot the game at eight midway through a busy second quarter.

Davenport once again strung multiple goals together, this time a 3-0 burst for an 11-8 lead that CSP responded to with three goals in the final three minutes of the first half for an 11-11 tie at the break.

After the teams combined for 22 first-half goals with 14 of them in the second quarter, Concordia shutout Davenport in the third while netting two goals to extend its run to 5-0. CSP also scored the first two goals of the fourth quarter, the second coming near the mid-point at 8:03 left in the game for a 15-11 lead.

When Davenport finally scored with 6:53 to play in the game, it snapped a 7-0 scoring run for Concordia that the defense did an impressive job of shutting down Davenport during, holding the Panthers scoreless for over 26 minutes of action (26:15) between goals.

The Panthers were able to trim Concordia's lead to two twice down the stretch, 16-14 with 4:43 to play and 17-15 with 1:24 to go. But Anna Fisher was set-up for a goal by Jenna Hamann with 1:54 to go and Preece scored on a no-look goal on a breakaway pass from Flahaven to put the game away with 54 seconds to play.

Concordia goalie Marge Lucio stood up to a tough test, making seven saves but more importantly, six coming in the second half to secure the win.

Davenport was led by Maddy Haynes with five goals and an assist and Theadora Krueger had four goals and two assists, adding eight draw controls and three ground balls.

Concordia continues conference play this weekend with a home game on Sunday at noon against #9 Grand Valley State.